Pregnant women and those who might become pregnant should avoid taking
the antidepressant Paxil because of a high risk of birth defects, according
to a committee of obstetricians who published their opinion yesterday
in the December issue of the Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology. The
Obstetric Practice Committee of the American College of Obstetricians
and Gynecologists said pregnant women should not take Paxil — a
member of a class of antidepressants known as SSRIs (selective serotonin
reuptake inhibitors) — because two previous studies found that the
drug posed up to double the risk of heart defects in fetuses. Nearly a
year ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and GlaxoSmithKline
— which manufactures Paxil — changed the warnings on the drug
to include the results of the studies. The FDA then advised pregnant women
to merely switch from Paxil to another SSRI drug, such as Prozac or Zoloft.
(Emphasis added.) The most common defects caused by antidepressants were
holes or other malformations in the chambers of the heart.

The obstetricians went a step further than the FDA in recommending that
women avoid Paxil and reconsider using any SSRI antidepressant during
pregnancy. (Emphasis added.) However, consumer health advocate Mike Adams
calls the FDA's caution last year and the obstetricians' current opinion

"after-the-fact warnings," since Paxil and other SSRIs are still
being prescribed to pregnant women, often without warning of the possible
harm to unborn children."

"It demonstrates yet again how patients are guinea pigs when it comes
to pharmaceutical safety, and how the current drug safety testing system
is entirely inadequate,Adams said. Plus, there's the fact that antidepressant
drugs imbalance blood sugar metabolism, worsening gestational diabetes" he said.

"This fact is almost never explained to expectant mothers who are
prescribed such pills."

"Paxil is currently one of the most popular antidepressants in the
world, and roughly 25 percent of its users are women of childbearing age
— between 18 and 45."